Thank you Boise, Twin Falls

I’m not afraid of much, but I was completely terrified to get in the car 6 days after a serious accident and drive (well, be driven) to Idaho. But thanks to the kindness of many in Boise and Twin Falls, and Kristin, my assistant who has been a phenomenal support and basically did all the work and the driving, it was a wonderful trip.

Here are Ryan, Amanda, and Kala, GSG readers who organized both events. We visited the spectacular Shoshone Falls after the second event and dinner on the town. And my littlest helper, Bella, I’m so thankful for you all.

This is Rio. He unflinchingly ate gobs of raw greens to show how long it takes to chew up what goes down easy in a quart of green smoothie. Then he gave me a giant hug (my own fault! I chose a guy whose t-shirt said “FREE HUGS!”) to a chorus, of “Oooh, careful!” from the audience. It’s okay, I’ll recover, with a coupla years of chiropractic care.

Kristin, the former opera singer, busted out singing, “His name is Rio and he dances on the sand! Oh Rio, Rio, dance across the Rio Grande!”

He said, “I’ve heard that before.”

We stayed with Kristin’s parents in the town of Burley where she grew up, in their house surrounded by a hundred acres of potatoes. So idyllic for this girl raised just off the Beltway in the big city of Washington D.C. The only bad part was that I wanted so badly to go for a run down that miles-long Road-to-Nowhere.

Anyway, loved chatting with 250 of you in Boise and 80 in Twin Falls. We’ll have a couple of videos with those who attended the class and had a great story, really soon! I hope you find yourself in this photo if you were there, and thanks for your patience with my scaled-back energy. I’m getting better and hope to be my usual hyperactive self in MESA soon! T minus 10!

Robyn, thank you so much for taking time to visit us in Boise! (Broken ribs and all) I really enjoyed the class, and loved hearing what you had to say! I agree with previous attendees, hearing your grandmothers, and your journey back to whole foods is an integral part of your message. What an amazing story. I can relate, as I am sure many others do.

I have no doubt that everyone you meet loves to pick your brain, and I am no different….(insert apology here) I have a 1.5 year old daughter, and I have really enjoyed trying to start her off on the right path…..about food anyway. Hey, motherhood is tough and trying to feed her whole foods is one thing I can be sure is good for her….right??! ha-ha.

Anyway, do you have any opinions about raw milk? Any literature you could recommend for me? My daughter drinks it regularly and I question if drinking milk often, even raw, is beneficial. (FYI, I have read Sally Fallons info) Thanks again, and hoping you have a speedy recovery.

Andrina, I buy raw milk and make kefir from it. (See Ch. 12 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods…..Sally would agree, as would Donna Gates and many others who’ve studied the importance of probiotic-rich foods.) Good luck, thanks for coming last weekend!

Attended your July 9th seminar in Tucson and found some things that I was sort of disappointed with.

First of all, why didn’t you have a presentation with the blender?

Instead you mixed those smoothies then placed them somewhere else and then 2 hrs. later we were able to get a sample. Not very good. It would of been nice to see a demo and what you were using for the smoothie and then offer the drinks to some of the people attending.

Another point why did you not have a survey for us to do on the pros and cons of the seminar? Some of use traveled a distance to get there only to find not even some bottle water for us. Although we brought our own. It would of been a nice offering if you offfered some water and then some of the wonderful snacks that you speak about. Maybe next time you will take the time to evaluate what your audience will be looking for.

Hi Ellen, Arizona is hotter than anyplace we’ve been before! I’m sorry you felt we should have provided water (there was a drinking fountain right around the corner though). When we offer free classes, serving a meal or snacks–in addition to the green smoothies we pay for ourselves (we made 8 gallons in Mesa)–might be cost prohibitive. We drove into town, got to bed after the first presentation at midnight, got up at 5:45 to make the 2-hour drive to Tucson, make all the smoothies for the 10:00 class, drive the 2 hours back to Glendale, make 4 more gallons of smoothies for that class, and get to bed again at midnight. And get up at 7 a.m. to get people to the airport and drive ourselves back 11 hours to get to bed, again, after collecting our kids, at midnight. Making snacks for everyone just might be more than we can pull off. As it is, my 10-year old son wanted to come but our big car was packed to the ceiling with everything it takes to put on 3 classes.

Anyway, we used to demo the smoothies at the class, but at some point (based on feedback) we decided to show just a little of it and make the smoothies in advance, put them on ice. At home in Utah, I have put on 12 Steps to Whole Foods classes, but our free class just focuses on the basics, and we don’t have time to add other steps into a 90-min. class.

We could ask people to evaluate the class in writing, but we get lots of feedback on the blog, facebook, and via email here on the site—just a you’ve done here. Thanks for writing, sorry you didn’t get as much as you’d hoped for,

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GreenSmoothieGirl and GSGLife founder, Robyn Openshaw’s passion for educating people about diet and nutrition arose from her own personal journey. 20 years ago, Robyn weighed over 200 pounds and had 21 chronic diseases.

Getting off the Standard American Diet proved a lifesaver. Robyn lost 70 pounds without dieting, by converting to a whole-foods, mostly plant-based diet. Twenty years later, she is a competitive athlete, free of all disease and symptoms, and at her ideal weight.